Home   >   INTERVIEW BOX   >   A great visual document on the 2012 Olympics by Mike Briggs

A great visual document on the 2012 Olympics by Mike Briggs

By on 2012/11/28

 briggs6

My work colleague Publisher and Photographer Michael Briggs has put together a beautiful Photo book of the London 2012 Olympic Games. All the images featured in the over 100 page ‘Olympic Diaries’ book are originals by Briggs, during his attendance to a total of 12 events during the Games. I had the chance to interview Mike to find out more about this beautiful project.

The Creative Post: When and why did you decide to produce this book?
Mike Briggs: I’ve been an Olympics nut since I was young, regularly inspired by stories of human sacrifice for that one goal, and Olympic Gold medal. My dissertation at University was based on the Olympics, and I even went to Vancouver in 2010 to soak up the Winter Olympics! The coming together of people from all over the world to celebrate world class sport creates an atmosphere which can rarely be matched…which is why to say I was excited about the upcoming Olympics in my home country would be quite the understatement!

T.C.P.: What was your involvement during the Games?
M.B.: I am captain of Benfleet Running Club, and have been actively involved in volunteer programmes over the last 3 years, promoting athletics to young people in Essex. I run 60 miles a week and take part in county races in my spare time, so my love of sport literally ‘runs’ through my veins!  Apart from that, just a very keen spectator!

by Mike Briggs.

T.C.P.: How did you get started with Photography?
M.B.: My love for photography grew from the simple desire to take better pictures whilst on my travels. I read many technique books to educate myself on the theory of photography and am always continuing to learn by ensuring that my camera is with me as much as possible. As they say: the best camera you have is the one you have on you!

T.C.P.: Which camera you use and what techniques/softwares you use for the post-production of the photos?
M.B.: I’m an advocate of the Micro four thirds format which has come on leaps and bounds over the past 3 years and my weapon of choice is the Panasonic G3. With a smaller sensor than full frame or APC-S camera’s, the trade off between quality of picture and size of the body & lenses was something that needed to be seriously considered, as the micro four thirds sensor takes in less light. But with advances in technology and quality of lenses, this has been less and less an issue, with the latest ranges of M4/3 camera’s being widely regarded as good as entry level APS-C’s, but with the benefit of being much smaller & lighter.

Because of this I can carry, my Panasonic G3 body, a 14-42mm, a 100-300mm, a 20mm f/1.7 and a 50mm f/2.0 all in a shoulder camera bag, meaning I’m very versatile on the move. Being far from the action, my lens of choice was often my telephoto 100-300mm (200-600mm equivalent). This enabled me to capture the emotion of the athletes as they crossed the line, be it agony or ecstasy!

Post production begins in Aperture 3 on my Macbook Air. I started with 3000 pictures and whittled them down to the ones I found had most potential, editing about 300 in all. Some just needed simple colour corrections or running them though a filter, and others required more scrutiny which was when I took the RAW file into Photoshop CS5 for a more powerful toolkit.

There was never an end project at this point, just a desire to savour the great sporting moment in my own way. Being happy with what I had produced I realised that the best way to retain these shots as a collection was to publish a book. After a few months of hard work, laying it out in In-Design and writing the content, I had it published with blurb.com and then approved by the Apple iBookstore as an ebook which I was chuffed with as I heard that their approval process can be quite cut-throat. I’ve now sourced my own printer and am actively pursuing interests in getting my book on the selves!

T.C.P.: What are your favourite takes and which were your favourite moments during the Games?
M.B.: My favourite shots were from the Road Cycling race, as being a free event, I could get within touching distance of the cyclists.  Think the shots I took that are documented in the first 15 pages of the book tell the story of the race really well as the British guys were forced onto the front of the peleton, and ended up running out of gas before a controversial winner emerged. But my favourite shot has to be the picture on the back page. I was 5 rows from the back of the Olympic Stadium, which severely limits the type of shot you can take. So I was very fortunate to get a great tilted shot of a British girl (Edith Child) launching herself at the first hurdle in the 400 hurdles semi-finals, with the British and Olympic flags saluting, quivering from the heat of the Olympic flame, with the crowd tapering off into the darkness. The more I look at it the more I see!

Thanks Mike and good luck!

Olympic Diaries. Available on Apple iBookstore as an iBook (https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/olympic-diaries/id569774354?mt=11) and the print version is available here: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3552898

See preview in the gallery below:

About The Creative Post

2 Comments

  1. Michael Briggs

    2012/11/28 at 11:42

    Thank you TCP for sharing! Just a sidenote, that the best place to get a hardcopy is now on ebay here: bit.ly/WZoCt6

    It’s been a great learning curve getting my first photography book to print, and so pleased I have been able to share with many people.

    All the best

    Mike

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply